The ECHL's Toledo Walleye are having an up-and-down season, but Red Wings prospects are doing their part to aid the Walleye's cause. Martin Frk scored 2 goals, Trevor Parkes had a goal and an assist (and now has 8 goals, 6 assists and 14 points registered over the course of 12 games played), Max Nicastro was a -2 and Jared Coreau stopped 21 of 26 shots in the Walleye's 5-4 loss to the Reading Royals on Sunday evening.

Toledo put on a late comeback but fell 5-4 to Sunday night at the Huntington Center. Toledo has an overall record of 4-6-2-0 and is 2-2-0-0 at home this season.

The Royals started with a bang outscoring the Walleye 3-1 in the first period. Toledo tied the game at one when Trevor Parkes fed Martin Frk a pass in front that Frk scored on for his second goal of the season.

“You can’t fall behind a great team like that,” said Head Coach Nick Vitucci. “We did a good job to fight back and give ourselves a chance, but it so hard to come back over and over again in this league.”

The Walleye would strike early in the second period when Trevor Parkes wristed a shot past Riley Gill for his team leading 8th goal of the season at 3:25. Reading would go up by two goals again when Stanislav Galiev beat Jared Coreau for his second goal of the game at 17:14 of period two.

Toledo would start its comeback after Reading made the score 5-2 midway through the third period. Martin Frk would tip in his second goal of the game at 12:24 of the third period. Defenseman Joe Gleason would score his 1st professional goal on a blue line blast at 19:14 of the third period to pull the Walleye within one.

Walleye Notes: Goaltender Jared Coreau made 21 saves on 26 shots in net for Toledo. Coreau has a record of 0-3-2-0 on the season.

"It's been five games where we've been lethargic,” Walleye coach Nick Vitucci said. “We find a way to play our way into a game and make it close. But it's fool's gold. It's happening too much where we've put ourselves behind the eight ball. We're flat. We need to play with pace. It's just disappointing.”

Toledo forward Martin Frk scored twice, once in the first period and then again in the third.

“We have to get off to a better start,” Frk said. “It's hard to get going after they score the first goal. We just have to get better in practice and put it out in the game.”

...

“It's deflating when a couple go by that you know he should have and he would love to have back,” Vitucci said. “If we want to be a top notch team we need to figure out a way to recover from those.”

The Walleye pulled within one on Parkes’ long slap shot. Parkes wound up and took the shot from the top of the left circle. But Galiev scored his second to give the Royals a 4-2 lead late in the second when it appeared Coreau may have been screened by his own defenseman on the shot.

Reading seized a 5-2 lead on Dominic Monardo's shot with 10:19 left in the game. But Frk then knocked one in with his skate. The goal was reviewed but it stood and made it 5-3.

“I was standing in front of the net and it hit my skate and went in,” said Frk, a native of the Czech Republic who was sent to the team from Grand Rapids earlier this month. “It was an easy goal but I'm happy with it. I was thinking it was a good goal and it was.”

Your favorite Toledo Walleye players will be helping to break in the new outdoor ice rink at the Toledo Zoo! Walleye players and mascot Spike will be available for photos and autographs at the Zoo from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 20.

Walleye Night is one of the first official events on the Zoo’s new outdoor ice rink. Skate rental is available for a small fee, or visitors are welcome to bring their own skates.

It’s all part of this year’s Lights Before Christmas. Featuring over a million lights, 200+ illuminated animal images and sparkling festivities all across the Zoo, the Lights run from Nov. 15 through Dec. 31 (closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day). The Lights open at 3 p.m. daily; closing hours vary (last admission at 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday).

For more information click here [link goes to the Toledo Zoo] or call 419-385-5721.

In Sweden, it appears that both Hampus Melen and Rasmus Bodin are "banged-up" as neither player took part in their teams' J20 SuperElit League games this weekend. On Sunday, Melen's Tingsryds IF did something very rare--they defeated Sodertalje SK 4-1--and Bodin's Linkopings HC defeated the Vaxjo Lakers 4-0.

In major junor hockey, on the OHL, Andreas Athanasiou didn't register a point in the Barrie Colts' 6-0 win over North Bay, but he got in a fight, and he has 30 PIM's in addition to his 24 points (8 goals and 16 assists) registered over the course of 21 games this season. The Colts' website posted a highlight clip from the game, but the fight isn't part of it.

The biggest event that will take place this week in terms of non-AHL or ECHL play involves three Red Wings major junior-playing prospects. The Subway Super Series is a slate of 6 games in which the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Western Hockey League play pairs of games against a team of Russian prospects.

The series is supposed to serve as something of a warm-up for the World Junior Championships, which will be held in Minsk, Belarus this year, but the caliber of the Russian team is always in question. Sometimes it's elite and sometimes it's just a bunch of under-20 players from the Russian junior league, the MHL, or their version of the American Hockey League in the MHL, with the players being unlucky enough to get the nod to play 6 tough games played over the course of 10 days while criss-crossing Canada.

The three Wings prospects taking part are all Canadians, and in the case of two of the prospects--Anthony Mantha and Zach Nastasiuk--they'll be trying to get back on Hockey Canada's World Junior team's radar during the games.

Jake Paterson (Paterson's a winning goalie whose 3.43 GAA and .905 save percentage belie facing almost 37 shots per game, so he's putting in Curtis Joseph-style shot, gobbling minutes) took part in the Canadians' summer camp and will probably be the starting goalie for Canada, so he's already "in," and it's hard to imagine Mantha's 54-points-in-23-games performance won't propel him onto the team, but Nastasiuk, who's captaining the North Bay Battalion but is a -7 with 20 points in 24 games, may be overlooked for higher-scoring prospects despite having won an Under-18 World Championship with Canada.

Anthony Mantha will be playing in both of the QMJHL's games, which take place tonight in Gatineau, Quebec and on Wednesday, November 20th in Sherbrooke.

Nastasiuk will play in the OHL's first game against the Russians, which takes place on Thursday, November 21st in Oshawa, ON; Paterson will either start or split the game's goaltending duties next Monday, November 25th, in Sudbury, ON.

The Wings will have no representatives on the WHL's team, but you can bet that Mantha, Nastasiuk and Paterson will be working their asses off, and if you live in Canada, as the QMJHL notes, you will be able to watch all six games:

The 2013 SUBWAY® Super Series is supported by CHL associate sponsors, Bank of Montreal and Old Dutch. All six games will be broadcast on Sportsnet.

Only the November 21st game conflicts with a Wings game--the Wings host Peter Karmanos' Hurricanes on Thursday--so you should be able to take in the rest as you wish, and if any of you have any idea whether these game will be...Let's say "streamed as necessary to Americans and other fans"...Please let me know.

About The Malik Report

The Malik Report is a destination for all things Red Wings-related. I offer biased, perhaps unprofessional-at-times and verbose coverage of my favorite team, their prospects and developmental affiliates. I've joined the Kukla's Korner family with five years of blogging under my belt, and I hope you'll find almost everything you need to follow your Red Wings at a place where all opinions are created equal and we're all friends, talking about hockey and the team we love to follow.